Miami Dolphins: Just Get the Draft Pick Right

Once week 16 concludes and the last game of the year is played by your team then it only signifies the end of the NFL season.

However, once the regular-season ends and your team is not in the postseason, then the real season begins, the offseason. For the Miami Dolphins, one of the biggest moves of the offseason was bringing in Adam Gase as their head coach for the franchise. Since the team already has a new direction in leadership because of the Gase hiring, now the biggest task of the offseason switches from hiring a coach to making sure that the first person selected in the draft will pan out for the team.

Ironically enough people get negative when it comes to the draft because of the names like Jason Allen, Ted Ginn, Jr. Jared Odrick, Ryan Tannehill, and Dion Jordan plague the franchise. Since 2006, those were some of the notable first round draft picks from the Miami Dolphins. However, outside of those players, the draft hasn’t been too bad to the organization, especially in the first round.

Miami Dolphins wide receiver DeVante Parker

We’ve seen Ronnie Brown, Jake Long, Vontae Davis, Mike Pouncey, Ja’Wuan James, and DeVante Parker all get selected in the first round and they all had promising careers in Miami. As for James and Parker, we’ll have to wait and see but from the early indications of being with the team, it’s not a stretch to believe that they’ll be around a long time making an impact on this franchise.

Just Get the Pick Right

The Dolphins have seen what the consequences for drafting players that are projects early in their career. Dion Jordan and Ryan Tannehill are both perfect examples of this.

Jordan was looked at as the “second-coming” of Jason Taylor because he was such as athletic specimen. In 2013, the Dolphins traded up to draft Jordan third overall in spite of the doubt that surrounded his game. In the three years that Jordan has been an official member of the Miami Dolphins, he’s nearly missed as many games as he played for the franchise dressing 26 times and missing 22 games because of suspension. Additionally, as a three-time violator of the league’s substance-abuse policy, we won’t be able to see him until April 27th. Regardless if the Dolphins decide to bring back Jordan or not, they made the wrong decision drafting him and he turned out to become of the biggest busts in NFL history.

Thankfully the good news is Miami also understands how developing players can work in one’s favor. As for their quarterback Ryan Tannehill, he too had to suffer some doubters about his game and he still does each time he takes the field. Whether you think he’s the answer at quarterback for Miami is irrelevant because he’s got a contract that says otherwise.

Additionally, Tannehill has progressed decently transitioning into a quarterback and shedding the traits that made him a wide receiver in college. The Tannehill pick was an example of getting a pick right because the Dolphins haven’t had to look for a quarterback since he’s been drafted.

“Kind of like [“When you acquire a player, you have to have a vision, from the assistant coach to the coordinator to the college scouting director. I look at some of these [successful] NBA organizations, and I think they do a really good job of that. Adam [Gase] and I have talked about it, and [general manager] Chris Grier, too. We want to select players that we all believe in collectively.”

– Mike Tannenbaum

The Options

On a 6-10 team, it’s very difficult to say that a certain position is a reason why you’re not succeeding.

This Dolphins team needs a lot of help at many different positions including (in no particular order) safety, linebacker, cornerback, offensive line and defensive line. Right now there are three players who all could be taken at No. 8 including cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III, defensive end Shaq Lawson, and offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley.

One of those three players look like the highest impact players Miami could select with their first round pick. Hopefully, we won’t have to see management struggle too much on the decision to make one of those three a member of the organization.